Index | < Previous Page | Next Page >

CO-OPERATION OF UNITED SHOE MACHINERY COMPANY.

This commission is pleased to report that the United Shoe Machinery Company, through Mr. M. B. Kaven, General Superintendent, has signified its willingness to co-operate in establishing a practice shop on the plan described above. Briefly the plan of co-operation is the following:

A separate department will be organized in the factory of the United Shoe Machinery Company and equipped with all necessary machine tools for the accommodation of twenty-five boys at one time. Two groups of twenty-five will alternate between the factory and the schoolhouse. The company will furnish all materials and keep the accounts as proposed above and purchase the product at established prices. The United Shoe Machinery Company will make up the deficit between the earnings of the practice shop as shown by the accounts described above and the cost of maintenance of the practice shop including the salary of the instructors while in the shop. The hiring of the shop instructor or foreman and the management of the shop will be in the hands of the Committee on Industrial Education, as proposed above.

The Committee on Industrial Education would provide, in the school, instruction in shop mathematics, including the use of micrometers and other instruments of precision, mechanics, chemistry of the different kinds of materials used in the factory, freehand sketches with dimensions, blueprint reading, mechanical drawing, English, civics and industrial economics, business forms and practice. The excellent laboratories and other equipment of the High School would be available for the use of the Indus- trial School afternoons and evenings and a portion of the McKay Street School could be used in the forenoons if required. In this way, excellent buildings and equipment would be available at practically no additional cost to the City of Beverly and the cost of maintenance would be reduced to a minimum.

An initial course in the theory and practice of the machinist's trade is contemplated. No pupil, however, would be bound by any agreement or indenture to continue to the end of any course. The only entrance requirements for a boy would be that he should have attained the age of fourteen years and should have completed satisfactorily the sixth grade, at least, in the public elementary schools or an equivalent. The requirements of a pupil remaining in the school would be satisfactory conduct and a reasonable degree of proficiency in his work. The greater stress would be laid on the shop work in case of doubt. After the completion of the initial course, advanced courses of one or two years might be taken, such as the following:

Specialization in some branch of the machinist's trade, pattern making, molding and casting, forging, tempering, machine drawing and inventing, factory accounting, salesman- ship and setting up and demonstrating machines, foreign salesmanship and the commercial use of Spanish or some other foreign language.

Index | < Previous Page | Next Page >